Teachers often use worksheets to structure students’ individual or group work during class. A good worksheet communicates purpose, instructions, and allows the teacher to quickly assess a student’s progress. As a new teacher, it may be useful for you to take examine a worksheet that has been completed by a student, analyze the task guided by the worksheet, and reflect on what the student learned. This page is meant to support this process.
Instructions
Create a copy of this page and use it to analyze a student’s work on a class worksheet by completing the steps below.
1. What was the lesson about? (If you can, jot down a summary of the lesson’s topic or its objectives). It was an introduction lesson to the Unit: Matter and Its Interactions. The Objective: Review basic atomic structure and discuss how the Periodic Table of Elements acts a model that allows you to make predictions about properties of Elements.
2. Insert the photo of a student’s worksheet.
3. Based on the worksheet’s task, complete the summary table below for at least three tasks/worksheet items.
Item
Task
Key Concept or Skill
Cognitive Level 1 = Low (knowledge) 2= Med (application) 3 = High (synthesis or evaluation)
1
Question 1
Reflecting on the day’s lesson and thinking about what was learned.
Low - knowledge
2
Question 2
Evaluating how the periodic table is a model and can be used to make predictions.
High - evaluation
4. Describe what students were supposed to learn during this lesson. Students were supposed to activate prior knowledge about atomic structure so that the teacher could gauge students’ prior knowledge before introducing the periodic table of elements. The students then worked in groups on a puzzle without knowing the instructions to activate their critical thinking and to mirror Mendeleev’s experience creating the periodic table. The students then learned about the history of the periodic table and a little bit about how some elements were discovered. We then worked as a class to figure out how to read basic information from the periodic table. Students should know basic atomic structure and the difference between subatomic particles. Students should be able to identify basic periodic trends and know how to read symbols, the atomic mass, and the atomic number.
5. Based on the student’s answers on the worksheet you captured, what did the student understand? What evidence to you have for this? The student seems to have learned some basic ideas about how to read the periodic table and how the elements are organized. The student also understands that the periodic table can be used to make predictions.
6. What might the student still be struggling with? What evidence is present?
The student did not provide specific information about what he or she learned. Both answers were vague.
7. Were you satisfied that the worksheet or task was adequate for this topic? What changes might improve this resource in the future? Why?
Most students gave vague answers, which is a little disappointing because I wish they had shared something specific, but that is okay because this was an introduction lesson. In the future I will be clearer about my expectations for something specific so students have to reflect about.
Teachers often use worksheets to structure students’ individual or group work during class. A good worksheet communicates purpose, instructions, and allows the teacher to quickly assess a student’s progress. As a new teacher, it may be useful for you to take examine a worksheet that has been completed by a student, analyze the task guided by the worksheet, and reflect on what the student learned. This page is meant to support this process.
Instructions
Create a copy of this page and use it to analyze a student’s work on a class worksheet by completing the steps below.
1. What was the lesson about? (If you can, jot down a summary of the lesson’s topic or its objectives).
It was an introduction lesson to the Unit: Matter and Its Interactions. The Objective: Review basic atomic structure and discuss how the Periodic Table of Elements acts a model that allows you to make predictions about properties of Elements.
2. Insert the photo of a student’s worksheet.
3. Based on the worksheet’s task, complete the summary table below for at least three tasks/worksheet items.
1 = Low (knowledge)
2= Med (application)
3 = High (synthesis or evaluation)
4. Describe what students were supposed to learn during this lesson.
Students were supposed to activate prior knowledge about atomic structure so that the teacher could gauge students’ prior knowledge before introducing the periodic table of elements. The students then worked in groups on a puzzle without knowing the instructions to activate their critical thinking and to mirror Mendeleev’s experience creating the periodic table. The students then learned about the history of the periodic table and a little bit about how some elements were discovered. We then worked as a class to figure out how to read basic information from the periodic table. Students should know basic atomic structure and the difference between subatomic particles. Students should be able to identify basic periodic trends and know how to read symbols, the atomic mass, and the atomic number.
5. Based on the student’s answers on the worksheet you captured, what did the student understand? What evidence to you have for this?
The student seems to have learned some basic ideas about how to read the periodic table and how the elements are organized. The student also understands that the periodic table can be used to make predictions.
6. What might the student still be struggling with? What evidence is present?
The student did not provide specific information about what he or she learned. Both answers were vague.
7. Were you satisfied that the worksheet or task was adequate for this topic? What changes might improve this resource in the future? Why?
Most students gave vague answers, which is a little disappointing because I wish they had shared something specific, but that is okay because this was an introduction lesson. In the future I will be clearer about my expectations for something specific so students have to reflect about.